Dleal's 1100x900x450 Mixed Reef

[Dlealrious]

So i decided to start up another tank after shutting down my FOWRL due to possibly moving house. My first tank was given to me by a friend which was 1200x600x450 which i had looking really nice until it crashed(Skimmer overflowed to waste and ATO kept filling fresh water) Then i upsized that to a cheap 5x2x2 which ended up being FOWRL as friend was luckily able to save my fish from the crash on the first tank.

I love the 900 width and never really seen many tanks this size around. Also likes the 450 height, just makes it a little easier to reach things when the stand is 1m tall.

Looking at keeping a mixed reef of Zoas, Acros, Monti's, Acans, Torch's, Hammers.
Not really interested in having alot of fish, i really want a Leopard Wrasse or Choti Wrasse but need to design a way to keep sand in one side of the tank for this

Display System:
Strike up Date: TBA - waiting on tank still !!
Display Tank: Custom 1100x900x450
Display Lighting: 2x SB Reef Lights 32" Wifi
Stand: Custom Steel stand with Light Holder
Sump: 1 standard 3 chamber 860x600x480 with a seperare 750x400x450 plumbed in. Had it lying around so thought it would be a good fuge
Rock: Dry Rock from last tank, been sitting in sump for 3 months waiting.
Bare Bottom with Black Perspex on base.

Support systems:
System Water: NSW
Display Water Circulation: 2x Jebao SW-8 Wavemaker, 1 x Tunze 4000lh
Return Pump: Jebao DCP 6500
Skimmer: Bubble Magus AC8 DC
Evaporation Top Up: Smart ATO
Kamoer 3 Pump Doser: Randy's 3 part

 

[G8trBait16]

Looks like this will be a great build. I will be following along for sure. :-)

 

[Dlealrious]

Currently i have a frag tank/collection tank that has been running 3 months. I am slowly gathering some coral and my build, this will be used a coral quarantine and eventually for frags possibly

[/URL][/IMG]

[/URL][/IMG]
And i got my stand built now also, looks awesome. I will be cladding stan in 12mm Plywood painted in Black Enamyl Paint, Wish i didnt use primer though, i did some panels with it and some without and it looks so much better without. 1 coat down 2 to go.
I will be using magnets to hold front and side panels on which are the panels what will come off to get to underside of tank.
[URL=http://s1243.photobucket.com/user/Dlealrious/media/DSC02384_zpspltxr8j7.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[Dlealrious]

Here is my aquascape so far. SPS on top and all others on lower rocks. I will have Torch's on one side on a serperate rock and same hammers on the other side. Dont want them to be able to reach other corals.
As tank is seen through a wall and from 3 sides i can have enough room for them to grow out.

 

[Dlealrious]

I had an extra sump lying around and i have a bit of room under my stand so am going to use the smaller sump as a fuge. there is soo much room in the sump as I dont plan on running anything thing apart from carbon and a little ROWPHOS at the start. I will cover the fuge sump with black vinyl to stop light spillage into the other sump.
I thought i will also have water enter the second sump from 2 points, one from the fuge and one from the overflow chamber. My thinking behind this is so pods can get directly to the return pump and into the tank instead of maybe getting sucked into the skimmer. Is this required?

 

[Dlealrious]

I got my SB Lights a couple of weeks ago so i put one on my frag(even though it wider than the tank) , first week had it set to W 8% B15% V100%. This week moved it to W15% B20% and boom, CAL and KH dosing has nearly doubled. It was dosing pretty much the same for the last 2 months. SPS seem to love it more than my Zoas, some seem a little retracted, even the acans have coloured up a little more.

 

[Mikedawg]

Here is my aquascape so far. SPS on top and all others on lower rocks. I will have Torch's on one side on a serperate rock and same hammers on the other side. Dont want them to be able to reach other corals.
As tank is seen through a wall and from 3 sides i can have enough room for them to grow out.

A different style from most I've seen and appears more "natural"; looking forward to following your build.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Looking great! I'll be excited to see this come together!

 

[Dlealrious]

Tonight I started to put all my cables and controllers into the "control box". Its nice an high so there is no chance of water or salt creep!
[URL=http://s1243.photobucket.com/user/Dlealrious/media/DSC02415_zpsls2jazrj.jpg.html][/URL]
[URL=http://s1243.photobucket.com/user/Dlealrious/media/DSC02416_zpsks8gbmxj.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[Dlealrious]

I finally get my tank this week!! So next weekend will be plumbing and possibly getting it wet.
Once i get tank in place i will neaten up all the cables and fit powerboards, so many cables!!
Here is how it looks with the cladding on. Both lights will be on this tank once i transfer corals over, so back to good ol cheapo LED to frag tank.

 

[Dlealrious]

Tank has finally arrived!!
Unfortunately the supplier did no supply enough plumbing to get it plumbed over the weekend. All the plumping is in imperial but we use metric over here in Oz so i couldn't go to the local hardware store for any parts.... Waiting on supplier to get back to me on the parts i need so i can get it plumbed up. More waiting......
[URL=http://s1243.photobucket.com/user/Dlealrious/media/DSC02419_zpsi5uwg8f9.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[Dlealrious]

On another note i think i am going to go away from having a fuge set up, once i put both the sumps in under the tank it just took up too much space. I might just make a smaller fuge myself to fit next to sump. I could turn the sump front to back also but then i will need 45 deg elbows on the overflow. I would rather the overflow go directly into the sump.
[URL=http://s1243.photobucket.com/user/Dlealrious/media/DSC02422_zps04mdvuko.jpg.html][/URL]

 

[Dlealrious]

We are finally WET!!!
So i ended up going with Sand after all, i think in the long run it will be beneficial and it does look nice(now anyway)
Does anyone have any advice on wavemaker positioning? Currently have one high and one low facing slightly up. I want to put hammers on one side near overflow and torches on the other side so dont want too much flow down low.

 

[Dlealrious]

Here is pic of wavemaker positions. I have both SW8's set on else pretty much full(1 notch down from full). i dont have them linked so it creates more random flow.
The micro bubbles from the skimmer are crazy, tank is full of them and cup is just constantly overflowing. Hopefully it wont take more than a week to stop this. Skimmer was second hand but i guess it still needs to break in.

 

[Dlealrious]

So the tanks been up and running for 2 weeks now. I haven't had any ammonia spike i think due to the fact the rock was cycling for nearly 4 months. Nitrates and Phosphates are practically 0, but im sure the algae is just consuming this. I'm running ROWPHOS to keep it low as i'm sure the rocks are probably going to leach some phosphates into the water. Been adding some pellets to tank also to see if it will raise levels but they are still pretty stable at just above 0. There is some colour on Nitrate test and a smige of blue on Phosphate when you do double the ammount to test.
Clean up crew is currently 5 Trouchus Snails and 1 Strombus Snail. They have done a awesome job in 4 days to eat most of the diatoms growing on the rocks. Strombus seems to be on the rocks more than the sand though!!
Skimmer is still overflowing which is starting to annoy me, its only just dripping into cup constantly so i still have it running back into the tank. Hope it will break in soon!!
Still waiting on plumbing from supplier so i can build the manifold, just have return pump im middle section for the time being.
Wiring is all cleared up now in the control box and dosing pump set up.
I am going to build a small fuge for sake of Pod cultivation on the right of the sump. It will be 250mm long x 500mm long x 600mm high. Has to be narrow due to space constrictions.

[url=https://postimg.org/image/uqkc2mxkv/][/URL]

 

[Dlealrious]

My fish list will be
Black Cap Basslet (Gramma melacara)
Leopard Wrasse (Macropharyngodon meleagris)
Green Mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus)
White Tail Bristletooth Tang (Ctenochaetus flavicauda)
Skunk Cleaner or Redline Cleaner Shrimp

After learning that no nutrients in a tank is just as bad as too much(holding tank has 0 Nitrate and Phosphate, corals not soo happy finding it hard to raise them) im thinking of getting something in display in the next few weeks. I want something colourfull and small so am thinking of a Purple Dottyback (Pseudochromis porphyreus). Leopard and Mandrin will be at least a year away once i build up a good pod population with fuge. Blackcap and White Tail are really hard to get here in Oz too.

Any other suggestions?

 

[MCooper]

Great build!!!

 

[Dlealrious]

Great build!!!

Cheers

 

[Dlealrious]

Finally got the skimmer working whoo! Added both lights to the tank today, dam they are bright. 30b 12w at leak. Any brighter and its crazy bright. Slowly adding coral now to. Update with pics soon

 

[Dlealrious]

Its been a while so i thought i would share an update. 9 weeks in now and i have transferred all of the coral from my holding tank into the display. I have also picked up a few more frags off some local reefers, just couldn't help myself..... they have colored up surprisingly also which i didn't except(sps frags). A am going to wait 4 weeks now until my i get any more. I'm getting a bit of algae growing on the rocks now, white fur almost would be the best description, its funny seeing the snails with fur coming off their shell. Im still running ROWAPHOS and dosing Aqua Vitro Fuel and Reef Roids. Im guessing this is helping keep the algae alive?
Nitrates are 0 and Phos 0.25.
Zoas seem to be the only things not too happy, i think the Amphipods could be annoying them also. I have tonnes in the tank and they are always in the zoas.
Still trying to work out how to take a decent photo though. Might need to wait until work gives me a new phone haha
One thing i cant get my head around is flow, still keep playing with this. I cant have it set to "Else" or its just too much flow for the Zoas and Hammers/Torch/Acans. If i have set to wave i dont know if its enough flow to circulate the water though. Any advice would be appreciated.